After a hot afternoon at Villa Escudero, we hunted down some of the famous national ice treat of the Philippines, Halo Halo. This has been a big hit for many of the contestants on Top Chef, so we were really keen to try different kinds. This one features a caramel flan. I like the ube ice cream and sea coconut jelly parts the best. Katy likes the egg roll part the best!
It was the first time Rick had seen jeepneys and he was pretty impressed. These are ubiquitous throughout the Philippines as a kind of private mini bus transport system. They're called jeepneys because the original ones were made from old US army jeeps.
The other form of popular transport are the tricycles. We didn't see any as laden down as the ones we saw in Manila, but they're also pretty colourful and zip around everywhere.
Finally, much to Katy's excitement, we made our way to Tia's little village - Baranguay Santa Elena. Genny's school is across the road - it's a national model of excellence school.
Katy was really happy to finally get to see Tia's house. Tia has done a fantastic job through lots of sacrifice leaving her young children and going to work hard in Hong Kong to bring her family out of debt and provide them with a good, solid, comfortable home, and a measure of financial security.
By now, Katy and Genny were had firmly re-established their friendship, and Katy enjoyed exploring Genny's toys.
Genny's curious cousins peeked in when we visited. Tia lives in the second last house in a row of five or six houses down a deep narrow lot off the main road. Her sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles all live in the adjoining houses. Genny has lots of second cousins to play with, but they are mostly boys!
The lane leading off the road and past all of Tia's family's houses is a dirt track. Along the way are the chickens, roosters, ducks, geese, pigs, and various fruit trees.
Katy loves Filipino mangoes and saw her first one on the tree.
She was also fascinated with playing with bug killer to zap mozzies on Tia's patio.
And she really fell in love with Tia's new puppy.
Katy was thrilled to have dinner at Tia's house finally after waiting many long months.
Katy and Genny are such great friends. Genny is a very gentle, intelligent little girl, and they get on well together. Katy is a bit bossy, but Genny has a pretty independent streak to her and is not afraid to say no to Katy. Genny is learning English but does not get the chance to practice it a lot I think, so she is very shy with her English. She speaks to Katy in Tagalog, which is fantastic.
Tia's house does not have air conditioning, so she thought we would be more comfortable staying with her cousin, Lorena. Lorena and her husband have really done well financially, also with lots of sacrifice. They worked in the Netherlands cleaning houses and offices for five years 12 hour days 7 days a week, sharing a crowded house with other immigrants. As a result, they have built a beautiful big house, own a jeepney, van, pig farm and small "sari sari" shop, have put their son through private school, and financially support and provide an adopted home for a nephew and two nieces. Seeing the living conditions from which they came, and the house they originally started in, this is a really impressive achievement, and one of which they are justifiably proud.
It was fascinating to talk with Lorena and learn about all of her achievements. It helped Rick and I to get a better idea about how to help Mila's family and in particular Genny, to pull themselves up to the next rung of well-being, so that Genny for example, will not have to leave her children to work overseas in order to earn enough money to support her family. Rick in particular found the trip really illuminating as the living conditions of the homes around Tia were far poorer than anything he had imagined or seen before. However, our discussions with Lorena also highlighted the vast cultural differences and the unfortunate but inevitable limitations that there must be in our ability to help Tia's immediate family. This was sad, but also constructive, as it has focused our efforts on some real, tangible, achievable goals, and helped us let go of goals that are not really what Tia wants in the long run.
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